Several months later.
In the skies over the Jiang Kingdom, on the way to Donghua Mountain, a burly man in silver robes stood aboard a Flying Boat, driving it forward at tremendous speed with his spiritual will.
Behind him stood a slender man in Black Battle Armor and a bamboo hat, his bearing solemn.
The burly man was none other than Li Jingyu, one of Li Ping's assumed identities.
As for the man in Black Battle Armor behind him, he was the Third-Tier Puppet Li Ping had only recently finished refining, "Mysterious One."
Mysterious One was an offensive puppet.
The moment he took shape, Li Ping had controlled him to test his power.
Thanks to Daoist Gaoji's improvements to the refining techniques, Mysterious One could draw upon an immense reserve of magical power equivalent to the peak of the core formation early stage in a single burst.
In an actual battle, the power he could unleash through a Treasure would be considerably greater than Li Ping's.
Unfortunately, Li Ping possessed only the Essence-Devouring Sword he had obtained from Yan Liming, with no other Treasures.
He needed the Essence-Devouring Sword for himself, so Mysterious One currently had only the Blood Sword Talisman Treasure obtained from Hua Hong.
To Foundation Establishment Cultivators, the Blood Sword Talisman Treasure was naturally immensely powerful, but in the eyes of Core Formation Cultivators, it was nothing special.
Without a suitable Treasure, Mysterious One could not yet unleash his full strength.
This was also why Li Ping was so eager to bid on the Artifact Furnace True Person Blazing Fire had used during his lifetime.
A Core Formation Cultivator without a Treasure suffered a substantial loss in combat strength.
With Gray Island accelerating the growth of spirit materials, obtaining materials for refining Treasures was as easy as